Hello Irene. It was nice to spend some time with you this past weekend. When we heard you were coming we ran out and bought some extra food and drinks so we’d be able to entertain you properly. The lines were long and the pickings were slim, but we did our best to make sure we would be able to entertain you in style, even for just a few short days.

It was so nice of you to skip Florida on this trip and come directly to your family up here in the Northeast.

It was so nice of you to skip Florida on this trip and come directly to your family up here in the Northeast. It’s not too often that you or your cousins make that extra effort, so I wanted to make sure I recognized what you did for us.

You were a great reminder of the power of nature and how things can change on a day by day or even an hour-by-hour basis. Your travel plans weren’t disrupted because you had booked your schedule and simply stuck to it. I can’t say the same for a lot of your travel buddies.

Once again, travelers felt the disruption that you, lovely Irene, caused when simply trying to get from point A to point B. The phone lines were clogged and those online travel sites weren’t much help when everyone was trying to make their changes. Cruise ships were told to leave ports early and get out of your way, stranding hundreds of passengers who had yet to return from shore excursions. You were definitely determined to make it to our house on time, even if it did inconvenience a few cruise passengers.

You were so determined to make it here that you didn’t care about the flights you grounded, the airports you closed or the resorts you shut down.

In fact, you were so determined to make it here that you didn’t care about the flights you grounded, the airports you closed or the resorts you shut down. You were on a mission! You caused disruptions to millions of travelers and forced them to spend countless hours trying to adjust their plans. For this we have you to thank.

Irene, I hope you’ll accept this little note of appreciation for all you did this past week. You showed the world once again why a good travel agent is worth his or her weight in gold. Indeed, only those of us who were smart enough to use a travel agent were able to survive your little visit to our area.

Travel agents helped us rebook our flights and figure out places that you hadn’t visited.

Travel agents helped us rebook our flights and figure out places that you hadn’t visited. Because as much as we would have loved to see you, we’d rather vacation someplace else. And as much as we’d like to say hello, at this point it’s much better just to close by saying, good night, Irene! Don’t hurry back!

Mark Murphy is president and CEO of Travalliance, parent of TravelPulse.com, Agent@Home magazine, Vacation Agent magazine, TravelTribe.com, Travel Agent Academy and Virtual Travel Events.